OLSEN, Arlin "Ole" (1916-2005)

OLSEN, REAR, SCHWARTZ, SCHAEFER, LUIS, GRAVES, BIER, VANLAERE

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 7/3/2013 at 01:12:43

Arlin C. Olsen, a long time resident of Klemme and a native of Clear Lake, died on Friday, August 26, 2005, at the Belmond Medical Center in Belmond. He was 89.

Funeral services were held on Monday, August 29, at the Klemme United Methodist Church. The Rev. Paddy Druhl officiated. Burial was in the Ell
Township Cemetery, Klemme. The Andrews Funeral Home of Klemme was in charge of the arrangements.

Arlin "Ole" Olsen, the son of Knute and Aleta (Rear) Olson, was born on June 9, 1916, on his parent's farm in rural Clear Lake. He attended the Eden Country School and Union # 2.

Arlin began his life long love of trucking in his youth. By age 11, he built his first truck using a Model T car frame and the gas tank he installed on the frame as his seat. He later graduated to a 1938 Ford Truck, which he used to haul hogs for area farmers to Mason City. As the years went by he made countless trips throughout Iowa and to St. Paul, Minnesota.

Arlin was united in marriage to Christina Schwartz on July 6, 1946, at the Little Brown Church, Nashua. Their partnership of nearly 60 years was blessed with four sons, Merlyn, Harland, Randy and Roger, and one daughter, Corrine (Susie) Olsen.

Following their marriage they resided south of Clear Lake for a time and later moved to Klemme. Over the years much of Arlin's trucking was done at night so that he could do farm work during the days. He did custom combining from 1944-49, in addition to his trucking. In 1949 he purchased a semi-tractor and entered the trucking business full time.

In 1972, he and his wife quit their trucking business. At that time Christina began driving school bus and Arlin switched to driving a U.S. Mail Truck, hauling First Class Mail out of the Postal Service Bulk Mail Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His route ran seven days a week for the next 13 years and was an 800-mile round trip from the Twin Cities to Omaha and back. Arlin's
dedication to the trucking profession carried him on journeys of more than 100,000 average miles per year between 1942 and 1985.

After he retired in 1985, Arlin continued to remain very active working on cars, trucks, and lawn mowers at the couple's home in Klemme. He will be remembered by his family and friends for his warm and uncanny sense of humor. His wife and children will remember him as a wonderful, warm, and hardworking spouse and dad. In recent years Arlin looked forward to the daily visits to
the Klemme School for senior dining and fellowship with friends.

Survivors include wife, Christina Olsen a resident of the Belmond Health Care Center; his sons, Merlyn Olson and wife, Audrey of Santa Maria, California, Harland Olsen and wife, Janet of Mason City and Randy Olsen and wife, Monica
of Garner; his daughter, Corrine (Susie) Olsen of Klemme; daughter-in-law, Linda Olson of Ventura; nine grandchildren, Doni and husband, Bill Schaefer, Denette Olson, Deanne and husband, Mike Luis, Greg and wife, Kim Olson, Ryan and wife, Tina Olsen, Shannon and husband, Gary Graves, Jim Olsen, Jenn Olsen, Dan 0lson and Eenja Olson; 16 great-grandchildren; and a brother, Clare Olson
of Clear Lake.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Knute and Aleta; sisters, Gladys Bier and Mildred Van Laere; and his son, Roger on March 4, 1997; also a
brother and sister in infancy.